Motorola Defy+ Rugged Android Phone Coming to AT&T?

A new updated version of the Motorola Defy, which originally debuted for T-Mobile USA, is found that supports AT&T’s U.S. 3G bands, suggesting that the Defy+ may be headed to the nation’s largest GSM carrier. The Defy is a rugged Android smartphone that claims to ‘defy’ your lifestyle and whatever abuse you throw at it, and can survive being dropped in water.

The beautiful thing about the Defy is that it looks like a traditional phone and isn’t bulky. If you’re looking at the handset and are unfamiliar with it, you won’t even know it’s a rugged device. My gripe with the phone, however, when compared to the newer Casio Commando is that the latter feels a bit more solid and a lot more substantial in the hands than the more plastic-feeling Defy.

Specs of the updated Defy+ resemble the original Defy. Instead of an 800 MHz Texas Instruments chip on the original T-Mobile USA edition, the Defy+ would carry a 1 GHz processor, which should improve the device’s performance. Also, the handset will ship pre-loaded with Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread out of the box. Other than these two changes, everything else will resemble the original model, including camera resolution, storage, RAM, and display.

The Defy+ would be an incremental update and would give Motorola an opportunity to offer this rugged Android smartphone to AT&T. Currently, the carrier offers the Pantech Crossover as its rugged and active lifestyle smartphone.